Stuffy

[Asriel and Bombur]

So things with the boys have really deteriorated since their fight last week. I’ve reduced time, gone back to neutral, used banana and apple juice, and even taken a day off and there’s still so much chasing and aggression now. When they’re out together and eating or in the litter box they’re perfectly fine, and they do cuddle, BUT grooming is an issue. Asriel has stopped grooming Bombur because Bombur never grooms back. When Asriel does groom its usually for a while, but Bombur demands more and starts nipping, which starts a scuffle. Az will patiently ask for grooms for a while. but eventually he gets frustrated and nips, causing more scuffles. This goes on almost constantly. There are some rare breaks between with cuddles, but not enough. The intended plan was to marathon them over Labor Day (only free weekend we have until the middle of October), but that doesn’t seem to be happening at this point. SO our current plan is to halt bonding till after our busy month of September, we’ll be going away for a week which is why we’re choosing to halt the process. They won’t be able to be with each other during that time and I don’t want to stress them and their sitter out by having her try to bond them. So halting the process till we have loads more time to work out their issues is the best route. I don’t think they’re unbondable, but I think they’re attention issues need to be heavily worked on. 

Bombur prefers the company of humans and always ends up resting up on the bed with the hubs and I rather than being near Az. I think in part due to his illnesses and being very reliant on us, Bombur just naturally gravitates towards us rather than a bunpanion. Asriel is a very docile boy, and I can tell he would very much benefit from Bombur, and he comes out of his shell so much around Bombur and seems lonely when he’s gone. 

In the mean time, I’m wondering if a stuffy would be a good idea for Asriel. Leave it with Bombur for a bit and get his scent on it, then keep it in Asriel’s cage. I’m wondering if this might temporarily curb his loneliness until we are able to more fully commit to bonding them.

[Nutmeg]

I’ve been having great success with the stuffy for my pre-bonding. Penny grooms it, but otherwise ignores it – which is fine as I’m happy with no aggression… then I put it in with Rupert… for a bit after his neuter he would hump it like crazy, so much that I removed it after a bit as I wanted him to be used to this thing that smells like her leaving if he humped too much or for too long lol. But he would groom it too.
Then back in with Penny… she would groom and ignore.

The stuffy is actually a bunny and the same colouring as them too hahahah.

Now that its been a month he doesn’t even really hump it anymore, but does groom it.

Just watch that they dont try to eat it obviously, lol, but its worth a try for sure

[Author]

Messages